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In what is clearly an interesting twist to the unfolding drama in which Police, VAT authorities and an unnamed “son of the Chief Justice” has been cited, a UK Director of Gillman & Abbey Funeral Service has fired from UK, a letter to Ghana.

Payne is querying how Ghana can pride itself on being a safe investment haven for foreigners when typical local partners act dodgy and sneaky.

The Director, who calls himself Stuart Payne (which first name we spelt as Stewart in the earlier publication), has in reaction to the pending police case involving senior partner Roger Gillman and Emmanuel Abbey, revealed that Abbey, in spite of his posturing and acts of skullduggery, does not have even 00.1 in shares Gillman & Abbey.

The widely patronized Gillman & Abbey Funeral Service in Odorkor, Accra, is a funeral home which runs services such as orders for hearse, pallbearers, supply of caskets and shrouds as well as preparation of cadaver for burial for elite customers.

Abbey, the Ghanaian partner who was claiming 10% shares in the company as reported by police and workers sources, got police to drag his UK boss to the law, accusing the UK boss of stealing C265, 000.00 cash from the company’s Accra office when, in fact, sources insist that all Roger Gillman came down to Ghana to do was query Abbey, and ensure payment of VAT returns totaling C255, 000.00 to the Ghana authorities.

In what we are learning from patriotic police sources, Gillman is being forced by Abbey to cough the ‘stolen’ controversial C265,000 to Abbey to be handed to “the Chief Justice’s son. New Crusading Guide investigations continue.

Published unedited is Director Stuart Payne’s missile dated September 24, 2015, fired from UK addressed to the Odorkor Divisional Commander of the police service.

Dear Commander Acquaye,
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Stuart Payne and am a shareholder and director of Gillman & Abbey Funeral Service in Accra. I am based in London and my role in the company is that of Financial Controller for our small group of companies. For health reasons, I am currently unable to travel by air and so have not been present during the current troubles at the business.

I am writing to establish the current position regarding our Company Chairman: Mr. Roger Gillman. I understand that he was arrested and charged with serious offences and has been released on bail of C20, 000.00 and allowed to return to the UK. I am asking if charges are still being pursued against him?

I wish to explain that Mr. Gillman has other responsibilities in Ghana apart from business matters. Roger and I have been running a charity in Ghana since 2001, long before we were involved in business there. The charity: TEABAG (www.teabagcharity.org) works in the Central Region sending over 200 children to school and we have also built and run a Vocational Training College in the village of Mankoadze. Current big projects are to pay for complicated medical treatment of a boy from the Central Region who is now part of the way through his treatment in the private FOCOS Hospital in Accra; this is a C42, 000 project that we are still raising money for in the UK. We are also working in partnership with the Rotary Club of Apam to provide a village with a complete water purification system which will give pure drinking water to 2500 villagers.

This is a C82, 000.00 project. In addition we are due to start work on a hostel building at our college; the first of this project has a value of 125,000.00. All these projects cannot continue without Roger Gillman’s involvement in Ghana. Roger has a 7 yr old [adopted] son and 4 yr old step daughter to educate and support in Ghana.
I understand from Gillman that he holds you in high regard and was very impressed by your skills as mediator trying to reach a compromise solution between Abbey and the shareholders. At this point I would like to mention that Abbey is NOT a shareholder and is employed as our manager.

I understand that during the second meeting with you, a compromise was proposed by Gillman and was eventually accepted by Abbey. During a third meeting at your offices, documents were circulated to confirm this agreement and these were signed by both parties. Following the exchange of signatures, Mr. Abbey, who was accompanied by his lawyer (name withheld), then told the meeting that an amount of money allegedly stolen was C265, 000.00 – up until that the amount had never been specified. Furthermore, Abbey then told the meeting that the money was the property of the son of the Chief Justice of Ghana and that Abbey was demanding that the case be continued against Gillman.

Mr. Gillman was astounded when Mr. Abbey boasted to the CID Officer during the meeting that he had bribed the VAT official C10, 000.00 to cover up his fraud, openly admitting that he had taken advice from his wife who works for the VAT Service. I cannot understand how such a statement could be made to the CID, the lawyer and the owner of the business without any interest being taken by the police. In Europe, it would have led to immediate arrest.

Mr. Abbey has now, in effect, seized our business and investments in Ghana. He has instructed all members of our staff to ignore any instructions from us and stop sending weekly reports to us. He has sole access to all the bank accounts now that Gillman feels he is not in a safe position to return to Ghana. Mr. Abbey is now also trying to form a new Board of Directors without the agreement of the shareholders.

We have made a preliminary complaint through the UK Foreign Office and are meeting them again next week with our full dossier of supporting documents. They intend to take action through the British High Commission in Accra. We are going to press them to advise the UK community that it is not safe to invest in Ghana.

So please clearly reply to let me know if Gillman should still consider himself under arrest in Ghana.

Yours sincerely,
Stuart Payne